Prioritize (like your sanity depends on it)
Because it does
👋Hello, my friend. Spring has sprung here in Charlotte. It’s March Madness. Baseball season (go Sox!). Kids sports. And now the kick-off to a crazy two months of school, work and everything else until we hit summer. I don’t know about you but everything for me right now feels like it’s moving FAST. In many ways, too fast. So this week, I’ve got prioritization on the mind. Let’s dive in.
Intentional Wisdom x Peloton
Before we get into it, a quick reminder to jump into the Intentional Wisdom Peloton group (link here).
This week’s challenge: Complete 2 Restorative Classes — Yoga, Stretching & Meditation all count. 🧘💪
Prioritize!
This week felt like getting hit by a ton of bricks—and not LEGOs. Just a lot going on all at once—between kids' activities, things heating up at work, and this ever-present hum in the background around health and wellness (especially some of the stuff I wrote about last week). I felt like I needed to take a hard look at how I’m prioritizing.
And not in the “optimize your to-do list” way, but more in the “you can’t do everything incredibly well all the time” kind of way.
I’m trying to remind myself:
You can’t spread yourself across every lane and expect to be excellent in all of them.
So I’ve been thinking about things like:
Are there projects at work I’m involved in that I don’t need to be involved in?
Are there roles I’m playing that someone else could play better—or at least with more focus?
Conversely, where do I see tremendous upside?
It’s kind of a barbell strategy. I’m trying to pick my spots. If I’m going to place just a few big bets in life over the coming months, where are those bets most likely to pay off?
Where are the high-leverage bets professionally?
What are the high-leverage bets for Intentional Wisdom?
Where do I have the biggest upside in health and wellness?
And what about relationships?
On the flip side, what are the areas of my life where, if I don’t perform at an A+ level—if I’m just OK—there’s not a lot of downside?
I’m not saying we should strive to be mediocre. But I am saying it’s unrealistic to expect to be the best at everything: best at work, best youth sports coach, best athlete, etc. It just doesn’t work like that.
So for me, right now, this is about zooming out and saying:
Over the next quarter…
Over the next six months…
For the rest of this year…
Where is my biggest upside?
Where can I have the most impact?
Where can I double down?
And what can I let go of—with zero guilt?
Let me take youth sports as a quick example. This spring, I’m an assistant coach on my youngest son’s baseball team. I’m not the head coach—I don’t plan practices, I don’t manage communications—I just show up and help out. And honestly? I’m loving it.
I really enjoy being with the kids, spending time with my son, and I think I can add value. But it’s also a pretty low time and energy commitment compared to what coaching has been like for me in past seasons. It’s one of those rare “high return, low effort” situations. That’s gold.
Another example: technology. I’ve talked before about using tools like AI to help write drafts. Like, can I dictate this newsletter while I’m out walking in the sunshine instead of blocking off two hours to sit at a desk and grind it out? That’s a win.
Same applies to work. This is a tough one, because like a lot of people, I probably have some people-pleaser in me. I want to be seen as the person who’s super responsive, always on top of things, etc.. But realistically? It’s not possible — or even optimal — to be on top of everything.
It’s not the best use of my time.
So lately, I’m asking:
What can I lean into at work that has home run potential? Even if it ends up taking a lot more of my time and energy?
Conversely, what am I doing that someone else could do just as well—or better—if they had the time and focus?
Because here’s the thing: when you’re only giving 20% of your attention to something, it might be better for everyone involved if you give it 0%. Take it off your plate entirely. Remove the mindshare. Give it to someone else who can give it their full focus.
That’s not just delegation—that’s energy management.
And this is especially true as you get more senior. The default is to assume that you're the best person to do something—because you’ve done it before, because you’re good at it, etc. But when you hold onto everything, you limit everyone — including yourself.
Letting go can be a win-win. It gives someone else a growth opportunity. And it frees you up to do the few things only you can do.
For me, that’s things like writing, podcasting, managing high-stakes conversations. That’s where I feel like I can add real value. But only if I have the energy for it. And I can’t have the energy if I’m leaking it out in 100 different directions every day.
Same with health and wellness. Based on what I shared last week about inflammation, I’m starting to move toward fewer high-intensity workouts and more long, steady-state movement—Zone 2 stuff. Combined with strength training. Combined with rest.
Honestly, I just started doing yoga again after a few years away, and it feels like my body was asking for it. That pause. That stretch. That slowness.
There’s an age component here. When we’re younger, we can sort of run ourselves ragged and bounce back pretty quickly. But as we get older, the constant stress—physical and mental—takes more of a toll.
That’s why I’m trying to find places where I can remove even just five repetitive tasks from my plate. Because every little one I offload frees up a bit more capacity to focus where I’m uniquely positioned to make an impact.
So yeah, this week is all about prioritization.
It’s about focus.
It’s about delegating.
It’s about managing energy, not just time.
It’s about making sure I’m protecting my best energy for the stuff that matters most.
It’s about showing myself some kindness.
It’s about rest as a legitimate input to high performance.
It’s about asking: What’s the most important thing I can do right now?—and letting that question guide my week.
That’s what I’m working on.
That’s what I’m thinking about.
Thanks as always for reading. See you next week!
—Greg
Content Diet
🎙️Dr. Ashley x Ryan Blazer on Mold Toxicity
As I discussed last week, I’m on a mission right now to track down the cause of some underlying inflammation showing up in my blood work so when I saw that previous IW podcast guest, Dr. Ashley Lucas had an episode out on mold I was interested. This was a super interesting listen on how things in our environment like mold and other toxins can sabotage our health. I learned that people with “shoes off” households tend to have way less foreign chemicals showing up in their blood work. Kind of wild.